Deputy Secretary's Speech

Deputy Secretary of Commerce David A. Sampson
Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) Healthcare Innovation Conference
Berlin, Germany

On March 25, the EU commemorated its 50th Anniversary. As you celebrate 2007 as the year of Europe, we in the United States applaud your immense accomplishments. Europe rose from the devastation of wars and became a force for positive change on its continent and around the world.

The world needs the cooperation of the United States and Europe to confront and overcome the new challenges we face. By working together, the U.S. and the EU are helping to address many bilateral issues and providing leadership in global affairs.

Just over a week ago, President Bush welcomed the leaders of the European Union, President Barroso and Chancellor Merkel, to Washington for the U.S.-EU Summit during which they held very productive discussions on our trans-Atlantic and global agendas.

During the Summit, we took stock of our accomplishments under the Initiative to Enhance Trans-Atlantic Economic Integration and Growth that we launched in 2005. In this Economic Initiative, we pledged to promote economic growth and innovation and reduce barriers to trans-Atlantic trade and investment.

While we have made some notable achievements over the past two years, during the Summit we agreed to bring greater ambition to our bilateral cooperation. We signed a Framework for Advancing Trans-Atlantic Economic Integration. This Framework will improve the effectiveness of existing economic cooperation and accelerate our efforts to achieving tangible progress and concrete results.

Recognizing its critical role in economic and social welfare, innovation has been a key feature of trans-Atlantic economic engagement.

In 2005, Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, and European Commission Vice President, Gunter Verheugen, launched the U.S.–EU Innovation Initiative to implement key portions of the Economic Initiative’s mandate on innovation and technological development.

When they met at the Economic Ministerial late last year, they decided to undertake cooperation on healthcare innovation.

The reasons why are compelling. Healthcare has a dramatic impact on the competitiveness and wellbeing of a nation.

For over a decade, we have witnessed the acceleration of health care spending. According to the OECD, 24 of its member countries spent $2.7 trillion in 2002 on health. By one estimate, this will increase to $10 trillion by 2020. By this time, health spending in the United States will account for over 20 percent of our GDP while other OECD countries will be spending a median of 16 percent of GDP.

Shifting demographics toward an aging population are contributing to this phenomenon. For the first time in history, people 65 years old and over will soon outnumber children under age five. This is an enormous achievement of our health care systems but it also poses significant challenges.

U.S. and European governments are urgently searching for ways to temper costs while providing access to safe, affordable, quality care. While each country faces unique regulatory, economic, social, and cultural hurdles, the United States and the EU have the same overall challenges.

Just as globalization has altered the way manufacturing and services operate, it is changing the healthcare sector.

The risk of pandemics, an unintended side effect of globalization and migration, has spurred nations to international cooperation.

Innovation is critical to addressing these challenges and reaping opportunities. Innovation can lead to improvements in the delivery of healthcare services, drugs, diagnostic methods, and medical devices. As an example, we are seeing the practical benefits of genomic inventions—engineered just a few years ago—in the form of new drugs and diagnostics.

Innovative models, especially those can integrate health care activities, can increase efficiency, improve care, lower costs, and save lives.

To increase our competitiveness and social welfare, governments must foster a climate of innovation in the United and the EU by putting in place policies that provide incentives and remove barriers to innovation.

As U.S. and EU public officials contemplate what areas to undertake in healthcare innovation in the trans-Atlantic context, the perspective and input of our stakeholders in the business community and the non-profit, academic and research fields is so critically important.

This Healthcare Innovation Conference is taking place at an opportune time. We, at the Department of Commerce thank the TABD for doing an exceptional job of bringing together all the key actors and thought leaders in healthcare to contemplate and exchange views on these very complex and pressing issues.

It is our sincere hope that this Conference will yield concrete recommendations on trans-Atlantic cooperation in healthcare innovation that will inform and guide policy-makers.

The U.S. government is very committed to this issue and I hope that we will have a productive discussion and outcome today.